Airbus Military has begun the assembly of Turkey’s first A400M military transport aircraft at its main plant in Seville, Spain, the company said in an e-mail message on July 12.

The planes, the first of will be delivered next year, will cost Turkey about $700 million. The plane was originally known as the “Future Large Aircraft.” A consortium including Airbus is also producing the MSN9 aircraft for Turkey.

Problems in development

The company experienced extensive problems and delays with the plane’s original development. The Airbus A400M is a multinational, four-engine, long-range turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military as an airlifter with both tactical and strategic capabilities and is now undergoing flight-testing. Under the program, Turkish Aerospace Industries, Turkey’s main aerospace firm, and a number of other local firms are taking part in the aircraft’s production.

At the point in its development when the A400M’s future became uncertain, Turkey considered purchasing the U.S. C-130J, the European CN-295 or the Italian C-27 instead, but decided to stick with the plane as the A400M program got back on track. In the shorter term, Turkey will buy six U.S.-made C-130 Hercules transport aircraft from Saudi Arabia. The U.S., as the maker of the aircraft, approved the sale to Turkey by Saudi Arabia of the six C-130E military cargo planes in May. One industry source said the unit price of the Saudi planes was less than $10 million. The Saudi planes are expected to arrive in Turkey later this year.